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HistoryIn the PastPolish Society was active at Imperial College in the 1950s. Most members were had been among the children deported to Russia with their parents on Stalin's orders in 1940-1942. Those who survived came with the Polish Army to live in Britain after World War II. Many became students and some were at Imperial College. Others were young people who had been deported to Germany as forced labour or had been forcibly incorporated into the German army. Some of them, too, ended up in Britain and came to study at Imperial College. The Polish Society of the 1950s was disbanded when the Communist government in Poland began to try to influence it and take it over. The Polish Society was revived in the 1970s and most of its members were people who were children of Poles who had arrived in Britain at the end of World War II, some were children of those who had been at IC in the 1950s. There were also members who were American students who had come to London to study - and there were a few students from Poland. The Society gradually turned into a lunch club at which students born in Britain met with students who had come to Britain from Poland during the Solidarity upheaval of the 1980s and the 1990s. The PresentThe Polish Society is revived again - our Polish members are split about 50-50 between students who are here from Poland and students who are children or grandchildren of people who came to Britain during World War II or during the difficult years afterwards. With Poland joining the European Union in May 2004, we can expect more students from Poland to be coming to Imperial College each year. Polish Society looks forward to providing a meeting place for the Polish people and of course also for their non-Polish friends interested in Poland and in Polish culture. |
